Blackguard (Vol. vii., pp. 77. 273.).—I am not aware that the following extract from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy has ever yet been quoted under this heading. Would it not be worth the while to add it to the extract from Hobbes's Microcosmos, quoted by Jarltzberg, Vol. ii., p. 134. and again, by Sir J. Emerson Tennent at Vol. vii., p. 78.:
"The same author, Cardan, in his Hyperchen, out of the doctrine of the Stoicks, will have some of these genii (for so he calls them) to be desirous of men's company, very affable and familiar with them, as dogs are; others again, to abhor as serpents, and care not for them. The same, belike, Trithemius calls igneos et sublunares, qui numquam demergunt ad inferiora, aut vix ullum habent in terris commercium: generally they far excel men in worth, as a man the meanest worm; though some there are inferiour to those of their own rank in worth, as the black guard in a princes court, and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational creatures are excelled of brute beasts."—Anat. of Mel., Part I. sec. 2. Mem. 1. subs. 2. [Blake, 1836, p. 118.]
C. Forbes.
Temple.
In looking over the second volume of "N. & Q.," I find the use of the word blackguard is referred to, and passages illustrative of its meaning are given from the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Hobbes, Butler, &c. To these may be added the following fanciful use of the word, which occurs in the poems of Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset; the author of the well-known naval song "To all you Ladies now at Land:"
"Love is all gentleness, all joy,
Smooth are his looks, and soft his pace.
Her [Belinda's] Cupid is a blackguard boy,
That rubs his link full in your face."
Cuthbert Bede, B.A.